Introduction to the Volume: Shaping the Future of Work for People With Disabilities

The employment landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by technological innovations, shifting employer practices, and new government policies that redefine where and how work is performed (Cascio & Montealegre, 2016; Harpur et al., 2022; Schur et al., 2024). However, these transformations have not been universally beneficial. For people with disabilities, barriers such as low employment rates, precarious work conditions, and limited career advancement persist, undermining their full participation in the labor market. As we write this introduction, working-age individuals with disabilities are employed at less than half the rate of those without disabilities (BLS, 2025). This gap in employment rates has persisted despite studies showing that close to 80% of nonemployed people with disabilities want to work (Ali et al., 2011), which is a comparable percentage to nonemployed adults without disabilities (Bonaccio et al., 2020).